Pages

Friday, August 30, 2013

So if you follow me on Instagram, you might already know that I'm a proud new owner of a Canon 60D! Aaaaahhh!!

I spent a whole day playing around with it, so I have a good feel for it I think, though I got a lot to learn still. Holding my old camera after using this one for a while already feel so weird! Poor rebel xt, it did serve me well fie some time, but I really wanted an upgrade. It needs a name! I was thinking Gladys. Or Shirley. Anyway, get ready for some even awesomer pictures here in Modern Girl Blitz! Y'all ready for this?

Thursday, August 29, 2013

Today I'm 25! I have mixed feelings about it, because birthdays are always fun for me but today I am officially no longer in my early twenties. So nothing says "denial of getting older" and "I'm a full grown adult" than bubbles, am I right? There we go, quarter life crisis averted! Bubbles make everything better. And pretty dresses.
Tonight I'm going out to dinner with the fam and Mike in the city, but during the day I'm taking myself on a lil thrifting shopping spree, depending on whether or not I find something cause thrifting can be so hit or miss.

I guess I should say some words about my outfit, right? The dress was my mom's then she didn't want it anymore so MINE! And you may have noticed I've been on a bit of a color tights kick lately. And they're good for outdoor photos cause the mosquitos have a tough time feating on my legs. But that maybe kind irrelevant being as I'm heading to the city tonight. This may not even be what I end up wearing cause a lot of the time, I change into whatever cute dressy my mom gets me for my birthday. I usually do. haha. Also, white + going out to eat = MESS. I'm a slob. I don't deserve white clothing.

I can't really help but feel the whole "oh god I'm 25 what have I done with my life?!" because I feel like it's only natural to have those feelings at this age. But when I do think about it, one, I'm still young and I have a ton of time to get important stuff done, and two, I feel I have done a lot thus far with my life that is satisfying enough for me at this point. I'm pretty happy with my life, I really can't complain. I don't want to come of as braggy, but I am pleased with how everything is turning out. I'll just have to keep the posi attitude up, and try not to whine about the small stuff so much. It just feels weird being halfway through my 20's when I still feel like I'm 18. I definitely pictured my life to be much different by this age, but that's not necessarily a bad thing! I'll have to remember that.

Hope 25 will be a good as 24! I know for a fact it's going to be much more eventful...

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

I like to watch a lot of TED talks while I work. The TV sometimes gets too repetitive for me, and I like to learn stuff while I stuff envelopes with buttons, stickers, and glitter. The other day, I stumbled upon this talk by Jessi Arrington on wearing nothing new, ie, buying everything second-hand and her outlook on feeling good in your own personal style. Give it a look! (it's fairly short)

I don't know how I went through this far having a style blog and not knowing about this lady. How cool is she?! Not only does Jessi look freakin adorable in everything, but she makes so many good points, and has been re-iterating what I've been telling myself for years. I keep on saying that I should go thrifting more often instead of buying new things. Sometimes it feels kind of wasteful to me. Don't get me wrong, I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to quit my H&M and Modcloth cold turkey (and I don't think I would want to, mad respect for this lady) however, I always feel so much more accomplished and socially conscious with a bag full of clothing that got their second chance with me. But I won't get too preachy on you, though I have a feeling I may be preaching to the choir.

What I love most about this little speech is her focus on self confidence and being able to "rock" anything, as long as you feel great in your clothes. So why not have fun with that notion and so to a flea market or thrift store and go for a treasure hunt for your new favorite outfit that makes you feel amazing? It's good for the earth and cheap, and in my opinion way more fun than the mall. It's a win win. And as she illustrated, you can find some real cool and unique stuff.

I'd also thought I would share with you a little collage of my favorite outfits that feature second hand items from this blog!

You definitely won't sacrifice looking cute buying second hand, but if anything you'll gain a sense of adventure, learn some somethings about your own personal style with experimenting with some "out-there" pieces, and of course some precious coins.

Monday, August 26, 2013

Sometimes you just gotta yell, am I right? Not that I'm particularly upset about anything. I just like being loud. It's like a release, it's good for ya!
Anywho, this might be one of my fave thrifted dresses. I recently watched a TED talk on buying second hand exclusively, which I found really really inspiring because that's kind of one of my life goals. Maybe I'll do a post about it soon, and my thoughts on buying second hand, being as it's a fairly big part of my life.
I have had such a BUSY weekend! Friday I spent some quality time with my Aunts, Saturday Mike and I met up with our real estate guy to look at some condos (we saw 4) which was very informative and now I have such a better idea of what I want in a place. After that, I had a little birthday get together at my favorite bar in the east village. Yesterday was Mike and I's FIVE YEAR anniversary! Jesus! We went to the Bronx Zoo and then out to eat in the meatpacking district. I have no idea how we managed to fit all of this into one weekend, but damn I'm tired.

Thursday, August 22, 2013

I have a thing with decorating walls. Bare walls make me anxious. If I'm sitting in a room with bare walls I always imagine how I could decorate the crap out of them. Decorating my walls has been something that I have been into since I can remember. If you go back far enough in my blog, you can tell in my teenage days that I got a bit carried away with it, and once my mid twenties approached I decided to start new and re-do everything (thank god) (it was a mess).

Anyways, I thought I would share my favorite wall in my room, that definitely does't get enough air-time on here. Most things I've made/thrifted. Others I got on Etsy, which I will link to at the bottom of this post. The Alphabet is one of the favorite things I've ever made, even though I did it about 6 years ago in college (oh god). I made it for my Typography class, where we had to create our own alphabet. The who concept of it was that you could cut along the little dotted lines of the letters and they wuld be whatever random background they are set over. They're various things I've taken pictures of, or collected from clippings. I loved this class and whenever I look at it it reminds be of the kooky professor, who once came to class with a giant white teddy bear, sat it next to him and ignored anyone who asked him about it. One time he was sporting these four finger rings on each hand that spelled out "soul sister". Art school.

The map I got in Seattle at an antique store. I love the look of maps! I think they're just so beautiful. This map used to be on the wall by my bed and when I couldn't sleep I would just stare at it. So now my US geography knowledge is like, really on point.

The angry tampon (yes you read that correctly) I embroidered after I had my room re done. When I was in high school, I would invite my friends to draw whatever they wanted on my wall. It was kind of how everyone passed time at Midge's house. Draw on the walls! One of my friends from college drew 10 angry tampons all over the room, with a saying by one of them saying "can you find the 10 angry tampons?" It's one of the main things I miss from time to time about my old room. More so than the angsty Choking Victim lyrics scrawled in spray paint. Ha. Punk.

The little owl plate I painted myself, at my old little pottery shop job. That was a good perk of that job, I got to paint ALOT. I was never one to draw animals very often so this was a big step for me, haha. Oh and see the Enid (Ghost World) drawing on the top right? Thats the original of the print in my store! It says "everyones too stupid". That line is like the theme of that movie, in my opinion.

Here's some links on where you can find the things that aren't thrifted/handmade:

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

I'm always weary of wearing the same color head to toe with separates, I'm afraid of looking too matchy-matchy. I thought I would try it today and it actually works, I think!
And I've always likes the anklet sock thing, but it's kind of hard to pull off, and most of the time I end up trying it out and then taking them off thinking I look goofy or too childish. Today I decided I would go for it! I think it goes nicely with this outfit. I think these are actually my boyfriend's socks. Whoopsy.
The zine I'm reading is Radio Antarctica by Clara Bee Lavery. I really like her work, it's the first zine I've ordered from her and I'm totally going to order more. Her illustration style is oh so lovely, and she talks a lot about self confidence and tea. And I'm obsessed with tea. I needed some zine-spiration lately, it's almost been a WHOLE YEAR since I've last written a zine. That is sooooo long! I just got so busy. At least now I have plenty to write about, being as a lot has happened, haha. I have a notebook filled with things to write and draw about that I have enough material for like a million new zine issues. I seriously need to get back on that wagon. Like seriously.

Oh hai, new favorite dress! I got this about a week ago at H&M. Full disclosure: I am much more a of a dog person than a cat person. I like a good, cute, and stupid hyper active smelly doggy, what can I say?
Anyway, this was my outfit this past Friday for the Laura Jane Grace show. Minus the jellies, I didn't want them to get stepped on! But the show was amazing beyond belief. I needed a show like that, that I could yell the lyrics along with the rest of the crowd. It was like a release, haha. I need to go to more shows, it's like therapy for me. Laura is one of the best song writers I can think of, and the amount of energy she can put into a room with just her and an acoustic guitar is astounding. There really is something to be said about that. needless to say I've been listening to Against Me! like non-stop the whole weekend. I took some pictures with my film camera, hopefully they came out good! If they do I'll be sure to share them.
This week Aunt Glo is coming for another visit! Last time she came up to NY was almost exactly a year ago, and I can't wait to see her! She lives in Florida and I never get to see her, and she is an awesome human. Yay!

Sunday, August 18, 2013

My friends and I are planning another cabin in the woods excursion for Labor Day weekend, and with this unusually cool August weather and anticipation of our trip, I'm getting excited for some great fall-like pieces..does that make me an anti-summer nerd?

Thursday, August 15, 2013

YOU GUYS I AM SO EXCITED I FINALLY SNAGGED ME SOME JELLIES! Sorry about the all caps. But I think its fitting.I've been wanted a pair of these since forever. I wish I could find the ones I had as tween in the 90's because they would probably still fit. They were clear red.

So, I (begrudgingly) had to support American Apparel to get my paws on these suckers (I'm not a big fan of that brand, I try to avoid it, they're like the hipster Abercrombie to me) but I did snag the very last pair that just so happened to be in my size. And I seriously couldn't say no. I know I could have got them online but I hate buying shoes online because I can be either a 7 or an 8 and I'm never sure until I try them on. Anywho, I'm super happy that I found them, especially that they were the last pair and happened to be my size, which is kind of a common shoe size to begin with. It's meant to be!

Also, you've probably noticed that I've developed quite the obsession with brightly colored opaque tights. I don't know how or why it happened, it just did. I dunno, I like accessories that brighten up an outfit. And bright tights definitely do that.

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

As many of you probably know, this past weekend my work was included in an art show thrown by my lovely friend Maria. It was in her buddy's apartment, so it was pretty laid back (as opposed to a gallery gallery) and I got to see awesome people and show off some skillz. Almost every single one of my friends showed up to support me and it was so incredibly heart-warming to see everyone in the same place for the show! I was too busy having fun to really take a ton of pictures, but I did take a few of my piece and some others of my favorites that other people did. The theme of the show was breasts, which I thought was really cool, especially with my feminist background in my art.

My piece is called 3 Cheers. My lil plaque explains it quite well.

I wanted my piece to resemble somewhat of a celebration with lots of party-like vibes and bright colors.

These photos I took today, cause I wanted photos with a white background.
One of my favorite things about my piece is the confetti edges, and the glimmering effects that it has in the light. I'll be posting more cool photos of my piece on my tumblr soon, along with a weekly series based off it!

Here are some of my favorite pieces done by my fellow artists from the show!
This was an interactive animation piece by Benjamin Santiago. It was like boob fireworks, it was so mesmerizing! There was a cool soundtrack to it, that he composed with some rubber boobs he sculpted with some wires attached to them and thus made noise. (I am so not a tech savvy person, so I'm so bad at talking about tech like things)

This photo/puzzle is by Andrea Arrubla. The missing pieces were strategically arranged on the floor,
(but I couldn't get a good picture of it.)

Maria Santiago, my friend who organized this whole thing, did this painting which is kind of amazing. She always has such a way with her words.

Monday, August 12, 2013

This was my outfit to a little craft party I went to in the city this past Thursday thrown by that magazine The Nest. I only realized about 3 hours after putting this outfit together that I totally wore the same colors as Barney. Which was uh, weird. I still like the color combo, when I'm not reminded of the creepy friendly dinosaur. Anyway, the craft thing was a bit of a bust to be perfectly honest. They had people making crafts with acrylic paint, and only gave people an hour and half to complete their projects, resulting in many of us leaving with wet coasters and vases. I feel like they totally could have been a lot more creative with the projects they provided, especially being as they're kinda supposed to be pros at that sorta thing. They just had some clear vases and plain coasters with some acrylic paint, letters, and some tacks. The amount of craft projects you can give to people that don't involve paint drying is endless (I mean, c'mon, washi tape is so versatile!) But I was with my one of my good friends, so I still had fun regardless. Heres the sub-par coasters I made!

Thursday, August 8, 2013

Sometimes I just can't think of a creative name for my outfit posts..haha! Other times I feel like the titles are the bomb dot com and I should work for modcloth naming all their pieces...a girl can dream!
I try to not talk about the weather TOO MUCH on here cause it can get kinda boring but this past week has been very Autumn-like, and I'm loving wearing tights and cardigans. I love to work at my desk with an open window with a brisk breeze coming in. I wore this two days ago when it was like 72 degrees. It was nice. Today it's humid. Blah.
Anyways, tonight I'm going into the city to meet up with Rhiannon for a craft party thing for The Nest. I am so ready to get my craft on! I'll be bringing my camera, too so I can report back to you with my creations. And this weekend I'm showing my art at a friend's gallery/apartment show in Brooklyn. Many plans ahead!